Is Your Body Lost in Space? Poor Posture and What You Can Do About It

by admin on December 8, 2010

IS YOUR BODY LOST IN SPACE?
POOR POSTURE AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT

For years parents have been poking and prodding their children in an effort to get them to stand up straight. Maybe you were one of those unfortunate kids on the receiving end of jabs between your shoulder blades as a not so subtle reminder from your Father to pull your shoulders back, or the sinister, “Sit up straight at the dinner table glare” from your Mother. And now maybe as an adult you do yoga, perform posture exercises you find in fitness magazines and consciously try to engage your core muscles and pull your chin back and your shoulders down and blah, blah, blah…. But no matter how hard you try as soon as you’re on your computer for any length of time or distracted by a phone call you revert right back to that slouch or sway back position right?

You see all those people that have nagged you about your posture for all those years didn’t understand two very important facts.

Fact 1: Your base posture is an unconscious event. It’s like breathing. Your brain has more important things to deal with than consciously monitoring your posture and breathing, such as dodging cars as you cross 7th Avenue.

Fact 2: Exercise only go’s so far when trying to correct posture because it’s not the muscular system that is controlling posture. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying exercise is futile. I whole-heartedly recommend exercise as it provides myriad health benefits and can certainly help keep your posture from total disintegration and help prevent you from melting into your office chair. But your tonic postural muscles, spinal erectors, abs, obliques, etc. are way down the list of factors that determine where you are in space.

It’s actually sensory receptors feeding the brain information about your position in space that are far more influential to your posture. I like to think of the body as an army. The brain is the general, the muscles are the soldiers and the sensory receptors are the reconnaissance. Think drones and CIA. How does the general determine where to position his troops? He needs information that he gets from his drones, and spies. Without the proper reconnaissance the greatest general in the world can’t position his troops properly. The U.S. finally captured and killed Osama Bin Laden because specific and accurate information allowed the military to target the exact house in Pakistan where he was hiding. We didn’t build more tanks and planes and strengthen our military and send them marauding through Pakistan. The body works the same way. Without specific and accurate information coming in from the sensory receptors the brain can’t properly organize the muscular system. This results in postural asymmetries, one shoulder is lower and forward, the pelvis is rotated, the head cocked to the side etc. Over time it is these postural asymmetries that lead to uneven joint wear, muscle tension, pain and injury.

So now what? Dr. Bernard Bricot, a French orthopedic surgeon, developed a system called Posturology that not only identifies the four main sensory receptors dictating posture but more importantly recalibrates these receptors and enhances their function to quickly and drastically improve posture.

The four main receptors that are responsible for posture are the eyes, feet, skin and jaw.

Eye muscles: It’s not the vision that is most important in determining posture, but rather the function of the eye muscles — specifically the ability of both eyes to converge toward the bridge of the nose equally and simultaneously (crossing your eyes). If the eyes can’t do that, there is a problem. You see, all muscles give the brain information about where they are in space and the position of the limb to which they are attached. For example the biceps muscle gives information about the position of the elbow and the shoulder as it crosses both of those joints. The eye muscles therefore are designed tell the body where the head is in space. So far so good? The same nerves that connect the eyes to the brain also connect the neck muscles to the brain. As the eyes go, so goes the neck. So, if the eye muscles aren’t functioning properly then neither are the neck muscles. As a result neither the eye muscles or the neck muscles can provide constant and accurate information about the position of the head. This means the body basically doesn’t know where the head is. Which is a problem because the body’s main organizing principle is to keep the eyes level on the horizon. This creates muscular dysfunction and postural shifts that literally go from head to toe as several muscles run the length of the spine, from the head to the sacrum. It’s all connected. Finally, the feet adapt to the descending dysfunction and resend the information. So, we have poor information coming down from the eyes and neck and poor information going up from the feet and a bunch of negative postural shifts in between.

EYES

Posturology is able to drastically improve eye convergence using 3 tools.

1) Magnet worn next to the eye to relax the lateralis muscle, preventing it from pulling the eye laterally. Ideally 24 hours a day 6 days per week.

2) Eye drops to promote better vision and eye muscle function.

3) Eye exercises performed twice a day. (These are exercises that actually can improve your posture. Just 3 minutes a day!)

FEET

Posturology improves the function of the feet with insoles that stimulate the sensory receptors of the skin in the center of the foot. These receptors instantly send this information to the brain which simultaneously reorganizes the body’s trunk and leg muscles. They also directly stimulate the muscles of your foot and ankle creating a more balanced stance.

SKIN

Scars can pull on muscular fascia and inhibit muscle function causing postural shifts. With essential oils we can neutralize the effects of these pathological scars.

JAW

Like the eyes and the neck, the jaw can discharge negatively on the posture as they are all inter-connected via the same nerves. Correcting the eyes and the feet can often have positive effects on the position of the jaw. For more severe occlusion issues we recommend the intervention of a neuromuscular dentist. We also have simple techniques and tools to eliminate clenching, which can have serious negative effects on posture, pain and your gums and teeth.

Blog Posts

About

With 23 years of personal training experience and cutting edge diagnostic and therapeutic systems at his disposal, Brant Amundson is one of the top personal trainers in New York City. Muscle Mechanic, LLC and Brant have been proudly serving the greater New York City area since 1996.